First lady to fight for standards

WASHINGTON -- Michelle Obama on Thursday turned her annual garden harvest into a showcase for healthier school lunch standards and pledged to "fight until the bitter end" to keep them in place.

The House is soon to vote on a bill that would allow some schools to opt out of new federal requirements that school lunches include more whole grains, fruits and vegetables. The White House has threatened to veto the measure.

Michelle Obama pushed for the new standards as part of her initiative against childhood obesity and, in recent weeks, has been unusually outspoken in her criticism of the effort by Congress to allow some schools to ignore them.

The first lady said the standards are important because kids get most of their nutrition from meals eaten at school.

Taxpayers spend billions of dollars a year to provide school meals, and Michelle Obama said it's their responsibility to make sure students eat well because research shows they do better in school as a result.

"I'm going to fight until the bitter end to make sure that every kid in this country continues to have the best nutrition that they can have in our schools, because these kids, all of these kids are worth it," Obama said. "They are absolutely worth it.